Sheryl Lee Ralph Presents the 19th Annual 'Divas Simply Singing!'

Summary

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Presented by the DIVA (Driving Infectious Viruses Away) foundation, [Sheryl Lee Ralph] began "Divas Simply Singing!" to help raise awareness about HIV/AIDS after witnessing so many of her friends struck down by the disease when she was an original member of Broadway's "Dreamgirls" cast back in 1981.

"Many of those men were my friends and I just found it unacceptable that they could die of stigma, shame and silence", Ralph said "Awareness, that's why we started doing DIVA because in the beginning people wanted to see what these fluffy little pretty girls were going to do. What were these singers and dancers, what were they going to do about this devastating disease. So we got people's attention by just being DIVA's but over the years DIVA's has changed and we have gone from just a little spectacle to a movement".

"The thing about it is when you are doing grass roots work, you are having people volunteer and no matter what people tell you, volunteering is not something a lot of people do", Ralph said. "They talk about it a lot but a lot of people do not volunteer. A lot of times they want to volunteer when they think they are going to meet a few stars or they want to volunteer when they think it's easy. But few people volunteer and do the hard work and I found that it was easy to work with Women Alive because they were not oppose to toting that bar and lifting that bail. That's what you have to do when you are working with DIVA's.

Ralph says that, "If the disease was rising at such a rate and affecting women of African descent in America there must be a connection between hear and Africa" Ralph was inspired and took a group of infected and affected women from America to South Africa because at the time people who were infected could not come to America Ralph is in support of a bill that she believes Congreesman Barbara Lee is putting into action that will allow AIDS infected people to come to America.

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Sheryl Lee Ralph Presents the 19th Annual 'Divas Simply Singing!'

Sheryl Lee Ralph is coming to the rescue of the Women Alive Coalition for an unprecedented fourth consecutive year. The 19th annual "Divas Simply Sings!" is set for October 10, 7:30p.m., at the Saban Theatre (formerly the Wilshi...

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